Days to Maturity: 59 for direct-sowing

This is the elegant bean you see in European-style restaurants. Most filets available from seed are miniatures, but Maxibel sets long, slender pods packed with all the "gourmet" flavor you expect. As easy to grow as other snaps, Maxibel arises on tall, erect plants that harvest easily.

These 7- to 7½-inch pods are stringless and very slender, with a dark green color, straight form, and mouth-watering tender flavor. The first full-size stringless filet bean to reach the market also happens to be the best for succulent flavor and texture!

Maxibel arises on bush-habit plants that set their crops all at once, which simplifies the canning and freezing process. But for nonstop fresh eating all season, simply succession-sow the seeds, beginning when the soil warms in spring and continuing every 2 to 3 weeks into early summer. You will never be without a new crop of delicious beans to enjoy.

Easy and trouble-free, even for the new gardener, this snap bean is widely adapted across the U.S., and is compact in the garden. For best harvest, succession-plant every 3 weeks or so from early spring till late summer (avoiding the worst summer heat in warm areas). You can also sow seeds in late summer for a fall harvest.

Maxibel is a legume, so be sure to chop up the plant and plow it back into the soil after harvesting the crop. Legumes are nitrogen fixers in the soil, greatly improving the performance of your garden. Your plants next season will benefit from this year's crop of Maxibel Beans, too.

Hardier than pole beans, bush snaps can be direct-sown after all danger of frost.

Pkt is 1 ounces (about 100 seeds)